Whatch’s it like?

In dozens of different little ways, it streamlines my life by eliminating my phone, and now most of my wallet too.

My pockets are lighter, and my shoulders feel lighter not constantly playing with my phone or checking for notifications. I can see a time when a phone is considered incomplete without a device like this. For me, that’s today, even before all the improvements that will inevitably follow in future models.

What’s it for?

I wait at the station with Citymapper directions on my wrist.

I’m sitting outside and Dark Sky taps me to tell me it’s about to rain, we go inside as the first drops fall.

My wife texts me to say she’s on her way home, I tap ‘reply’ then tap OK.

She messages me on Facebook and I reply in one tap with a thumbs up.

I get through Tube barriers with a double tap of the button and holding my wrist to the scanner.

Ditto for any retailer that takes contactless payments. Any retailer.

I check in on Foursquare in 2 clicks using Checkie

I book an Uber, when it’s nearby my wrist buzzes me with the license plate + ETA.

I’m cooking dinner and need to set a timer: hold up my wrist and say “Hey Siri, set a timer for 15 minutes”.

I’m cooking more casually and just switch the Chronograph face and set the stop watch going.

I recently got contact lenses. Days I wear them, I’ll usually just talk to Siri: “remind me to take my contacts out at 11pm.”

I dictate a meeting into the Fantastical app, which parses the natural language of a phrase like: “dinner with Sarah at 11am on Thursday in London Bridge”

I ask Siri for walking directions to my destination then receive taps on my wrist at junctions when I need to go left or right. It has become almost unconscious now.

I stand up more, generally using the prompt from the fitness app as an excuse to tidy something in the house or look away from my screen and take my glasses off.

I go running without needing a phone with me, loading music onto the watch and using Bluetooth earphones.

I use Evernote for a shopping list where I can tick off the items as I go or referencing notes if I’m speaking.

I do all these things all the time and they feel really good. Assuming I upgrade next year, it will have cost me about £1 a day.

But most of the time, I don’t consciously do anything with it at all. I check the time or see a mention on Twitter in passing. I get on with my life in a way my phone had been obstructing me.

I use my iPad more because if I’m going to switch from the effortless device on my wrist and get something out of my bag, I may as well have screen space. And I even appreciate my phone as a tool when I need to get things done.

I imported the first iPhone from the US before it arrived here and was probably more ambivalent about its benefits than I am about the watch. It turns out, for all its joys and advantages, the smartphone slightly enslaved us.

The watch has come to bring balance back to this equation. I’m just not sure normal people will all see that for a few years to come.